While the cultivator had sensed Darius was about to attack, he couldn't dodge in time. Even so, attacking the former didn't soothe Darius' anger. Darius lowered his head, his attention shooting toward his hands. His countenance darkened like the onset of a storm. It was because his blade made of life force had vanished. It was like it never existed. As for the cultivator with spider legs, he had screamed out of fear.Darius refused to believe what was happening, so he willed his life force to form another blade in the air. Again, it disappeared before touching the cultivator's spider legs. That was unlike anything Darius had ever seen. Darius' features wrinkled in confusion. As he pondered why that happened, he heard Teivel's voice in his mind. "Don't worry," Teivel said, "That's a visual disruption by the magic seal. It won't have an effect on you if you're powerful enough. It can't interfere with your resolve or your abilities."Darius calmed down upon hearing that. Sighing, he
Still, it was more accurate to say that Darius hadn't thought about it yet. Brows going up in exhaustion, Darius flashed a helpless, weary look. Little did he expect to see a relaxed and upbeat smile on Teivel. "You don't need to worry about that," remarked a cheery teivel. "You've already broken the seal once with your abilities earlier. I'm sure it'll be easy for you to do it again. The reason you can't now isn't because you're unwilling. It's because you don't believe in yourself."That shocked Darius, who needed to take two deep breaths before smiling back at the former. "I can break this seal with my abilities."It wasn't a question he had uttered. Instead, it was confident reassurance to himself. Even his eyes lit up as he spoke. He then nodded at Teivel, saying, "I understand now."Only when Teivel explained those things to him did he notice the changes to his environment. Placing both hands behind his back, he shut his eyes and tried to sense his surroundings with his heart.
Darius slowly extended his arm and placed his palm against the wall ahead. The countless screaming souls that bared their teeth from earlier materialized before him. Their eyes lit up with greed like they wanted something from him. Darius knew they were after his body. They wanted to take it over and return to life. He refused to fulfill their wish. His lips spread into a thin smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. Darkness shrouded his gaze. It gave off a frosty exterior. It was as if his presence had set off a blizzard in the space around them. Overflowing black life force spilled from his palm. This caused the words on the wall to stop distorting. The words seemed to have grown eyes, all focusing on Darius. It took several seconds before Darius realized he hadn't hallucinated it. The eyes existed. Soon enough, the words crept out of the walls, revealing that they were actually an enormous clew of wriggling worms."Oh!" Teivel exclaimed. "Those are leeches that originate from West
Teivel then whipped his head around. His lips curved enough to flash his pearly teeth at Darius. "You're right! No one has ever thought about this before, yet you did! I'm going to tell so many people about this!" Still standing amidst the flames, he grinned at Darius. He continued, "As for your questions about the leeches from Western Xypora, it's time I dispel your doubts. There are many martial arts cultivators, and they belong to unique organizations. Moreover, my group's histories are unknown to others. So, our historical records differ from yours. It's just that you're unable to read my group's historical records—"A lengthy sigh came from Teivel just then. "Because your powers back then weren't good enough. That's why I never told you about these things. But now, I think it's time you knew."For a moment, Darius held his breath while processing the former's words. He had never considered the possibility of such things, not even now, when his powers had advanced. Now that the
The cultivator smiled in a scornful way. He moved his arm. The remainder of the dust that hadn't merged to form his body flew to his palm.Darius smirked at this and cracked his neck. "Your attack looks scary. But, I only need to look closer to see that it only seems that way. There's no bite to your bark." He shook his head and clicked his tongue.The cultivator had never imagined being mocked this way. He sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled heavily, causing the dust to swirl around the room.Darius frowned, feeling disgusted when he remembered how the dust had come to be. His expression darkened. Without any hesitation, he stretched out an arm and channeled his black life force toward the cultivator.The cultivator looked shocked. "How are you able to use this type of life force? Were you among those who betrayed us?" Then, he scowled. "I don't care who you are. You shouldn't have betrayed us. If you've turned your back on us, you're no longer one of our own. I don't think it
Darius raised an eyebrow and held out a palm. The balls of life force floated toward him and landed on his palm. Darius smiled mockingly at them, not expecting the balls of life force to still want to attack him despite the seal on the room being broken.He made to clench his fist, but before he could, Teivel cried from the book realm. "No, don't! You can't deal with them so directly!"Darius stopped and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Teivel sighed and continued, "They're doing this on purpose because they want you to crush them. You have to keep this in mind—aside from those plaques, anything that you crush or kill when the seal breaks will somehow find a way to bite you in the ass."Darius looked at the balls of life force in his palm and sighed. Then, he put his hands behind his back and ignored the balls of life force. They were now floating around him again. He walked out of the room to move on to the next color—yellow. To his surprise, it was the corridor he'd been walking t
"I've been here long enough, yet you haven't made your move," said Darius.The Consciousness smirked at him. "Oh, you have no idea how much I want to take you down. Alas, it looks like I'm no match for you. So, you should enjoy your life here!" He snapped his fingers.However, he was too late. As soon as his words fell, black life force seeped out from the walls around them and circled him. The Consciousness' own life force immediately disappeared—it didn't even manage to get to the corridor.Darius stood where he was. When he didn't see any major changes, he walked toward The Consciousness. The Consciousness could see Darius approaching and was horrified to find he couldn't move his body at all.His eyes turned crimson. As soon as he met Darius' gaze, his body collapsed to the floor. The crimson in his eyes immediately disappeared. When this happened, the black life force that had been circling the man suddenly exploded with a bang.Darius raised an eyebrow and watched as the dust s
"Yes, you're right." The man lowered his head, then looked up again with tears all over his face. His voice was hoarse. "I want to apologize to you. Your father probably wouldn't have died if he hadn't insisted on saving me.""What really happened?" Darius frowned. "I thought my father died because of an accident, as did my mother. It was also because of that accident that I went missing."The man's tears kept streaming down his face as he nodded. "You're not completely wrong. That's what everyone thought had happened. But, the truth is that your mother's the only one who died in that accident. Your father survived, but there were people watching him the whole time."He paused. "They used some tricks to make it seem like your father had died. Then they sneaked his body away before it was cremated. They brought him to this hospital because they wanted to get some information out of him."The man shut his eyes. "I was an idiot. I came across some clues while searching for you. They l